Syzygium grande
(sea apple)

Preferred Scientific Name

• Syzygium grande (Wight) Walp.

Preferred Common Name

• sea apple

Other Scientific Names

• Eugenia grandis Wight
• Eugenia laosensis Gagnep.
• Eugenia montana Wight
• Jambosa firma Blume
• Jambosa grandis (Wight) Blume
• Syzygium firmum (Blume) Thwaites
• Syzygium laosense (Gagnep.) Merr. & L.M.Perry
• Syzygium megalophyllum Merr. & L.M.Perry
• Syzygium montanum Thwaites & Hook.f.

Local Common Names

• Bangladesh: bhattijam; dhakijam
• India: jam; jamuk
• Indonesia: klokos
• Malaysia: jambu ayer laut; jambu laut; jemba; kerian acheh; kerian ayer; ubah
• Malaysia/Peninsular Malaysia: jambu air laut; jambu jembah; kelat jambu
• Myanmar: thabyay-kyee; thabyegyi; thabye-pinbwa; thabye-ywet-gyi; toungthabyay
• Thailand: mao; wa-dong; yamu-yimma

Trade name

• jam
• jaman

• Domain: Eukaryota
•     Kingdom: Plantae
•         Phylum: Spermatophyta
•             Subphylum: Angiospermae
•                 Class: Dicotyledonae
•                     Order: Myrtales
•                         Family: Myrtaceae
•                             Genus: Syzygium
•                                 Species: Syzygium grande

Syzygium is a tropical genus of the Myrtle family Myrtaceae consisting of over 1000 species with greatest diversity in Malesia and the Old World tropics. Some economically significant members of this genus include the clove tree, S. aromaticum, the rose-apple, S. jambos, and the Malay-apple, S. malaccense.

There has been past taxonomic confusion between the genera Syzygium and Eugenia, but the center of diversity for Eugenia is in the Neotropics. Linnaeus originally described several species under the name Eugenia, named in honour of Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663-1736), a patron of botany and horticulture (Britton, 1918). The species Syzygium grande was first described by Wight under two separate names, Eugenia grandis and E. montana, in 1841; the names S. grande and E. grandis had previously been listed in an 1831 publication by Wallich, but had not been described. Two years later, in 1843, Eugenia grandis was moved to the Syzygium genus by Walpers, resulting in the currently accepted taxonomic name Syzygium grande (Wight) Welp. (IPNI, 2015).

Large tree, up to 30 m tall. Bark is rough with shallow fissures, grayish buff or pinkish in colour with inner bark pale pink to dark reddish and pale yellow near the surface. Leaves are broadly elliptical (10-25 cm x 6-12 cm) with up to 20 well-spaced secondary veins in a pinnate arrangement, its veins appearing invisible near the leaf margin. Flowers are 2.5-3 cm when expanded, very fragrant, petals and stamens white. Fruits are somewhat globular, urn-shaped to ellipsoid berries, apparently green when ripe, 1-2 cm in length, containing a single seed 5-7 mm in size (Henderson, 1949; Daehler and Baker, 2006; PIER, 2015).

S. grande is considered native to the Old World tropics with natural populations in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand, often being grown on plantations in these places for timber production. It has also been actively cultivated in Bangladesh and Singapore to aid in repopulating deforested areas as its mature wood is fire-resistant (Hossein, 2003; Islam, 2003; Shono et al., 2007; Rahman et al., 2011; Govaerts, 2015). It was listed in the Western Australian Herbarium’s FloraBase (2015) (as syn. E. grandis) as native to Western Australia and was listed as being cultivated in the Melbourne Botanic Gardens in 1883 (Guilfoyle, 1883), but Maiden (1899) reported it as a timber species not native to Australia.

In Hawaii, where the species can be found growing on coastal edge forests, it was apparently first grown in the Lyon Arboretum in 1932, with a report of its naturalized state around the Arboretum first reported in 2006 (Daehler and Baker, 2006); there were observed “hundreds of seedlings and saplings... mostly within 100 m of the original plantings in both Haukulu and ‘Aihualama” and “thickets of saplings in unmanaged forests”.

Date of introduction to the West Indies is uncertain but, similarly to the case of Hawaii, it may have occurred within the last century. The species was not listed in floras from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but specimens were collected in Cuba in 1930 and 1932 (Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, 2015). Liogier and Martorell (2000) described it as “scarcely cultivated” in Puerto Rico. 

Soil drainage

• free
• impeded

Soil reaction

• acid
• neutral

Soil texture

• heavy
• light
• medium

Special soil tolerances

• infertile
• shallow

Natural Dispersal (Non-Biotic)

Seed dispersal by water is possible: the species thrives in coastal edge forests of its native Malay range as well as in Hawaii and Singapore.

Vector Transmission (Biotic)

Seed can be dispersed by animals; the species’ fruits are eaten by bats (Wyatt-Smith, 1953; National University of Singapore, 2015), as well as monkeys and squirrels (Ridley, 1894).

Accidental Introduction

The species is known to have naturalized beyond its native range in places where it had been cultivated for use in agroforestry and revegetation (Randall, 2012).

Intentional Introduction

S. grande has been cultivated for use in agroforestry and revegetation, most notably in Bangladesh and Singapore (Hossein, 2003; Islam, 2003; Shono et al., 2007; Randall, 2012).

S. grande has been cultivated in tropical Asia for the commercial production of timber and for use as a firebreak tree, especially in areas that had been severely deforested and are susceptible to brush fires. As the species appears to naturalize in the areas immediately surrounding where it was originally planted (Daehler and Baker, 2006; PIER, 2015), its introduction and presumably limited spread to non-native areas would not be expected to have a negative economic impact.

Naturalization of the species appears to be limited to areas surrounding plantations and places where it had been originally intentionally planted (Daehler and Baker, 2006; PIER, 2015); currently, there has been no report of its invasion or negative economic or environmental impact, but this is an area for future research.

• Abundant in its native range
• Tolerates, or benefits from, cultivation, browsing pressure, mutilation, fire etc
• Pioneering in disturbed areas
• Long lived
• Has propagules that can remain viable for more than one year

• Modification of fire regime

• Highly likely to be transported internationally deliberately

Economic Value

The species has been cultivated in plantations for timber production, by itself or mixed in with teak or other tree species. Its wood is used for a number of products including posts, poles, roundwood, and other construction materials (Islam, 2003).

Social Benefit

Various members of the Syzygium genus are used in local medical traditions, and some, such as the Malay apple and the date plum, are cultivated for their edible fruits. S. grande is known to be used medicinally in Bangladesh; its mature fruit, seeds, and bark are harvested and used locally to treat cases of coughs, piles, tooth diseases, dysentery, bronchitis, and diabetes (Rahman et al., 2011).

The fruits of S. grande, while not known to be grown for food, are often eaten by animals such as monkeys, bats, and squirrels which aid in the dispersal of the seeds (Ridley, 1894; Wyatt-Smith, 1953; National University of Singapore, 2015).

Environmental Services

In Singapore and Bangladesh, S. grande has been cultivated in areas that have suffered major deforestation and are susceptible to brush fires, as S. grande is a good firebreak tree (Islam, 2003; Shono et al., 2007).